NHER 57377 (Monument record) - Three World War Two spigot mortar emplacements/airfield defences

July 2012. Norfolk NMP.
Three further World War Two defences/spigot mortar emplacements are visible on aerial photographs (S1-S2) as open earthworks approximately 400m to the south of a further two defences (NHER 53397) on the east side of Snetterton airfield (NHER 9068).
Two of these features are centred on TM 0141 8977 and TM 0184 8972. Each defence consists of a pit feature measuring up to 6m by 6m, which presumably would have contained a concrete ‘thimble’ and ammunition lockers to each side. The upcast spoil forms a bank around each of the pits, up to 4m in width in some places.
A third earthwork is visible centred on TM 0137 8971, which may also have formed part of the World War Two defences, although it does appear to be slightly different in nature, and it may be for this reason that it has been previously recorded as a possible Bronze Age barrow (NHER 10788).
However, it is interesting to note that none of these features are visible on an aerial photograph from 1942 (S3), when the airfield was visible under construction, suggesting that the ‘barrow’ NHER 10788 may have been either mis-located or wrongly identified. Trial trenching by HAT in 2001 (NHER 35980) could not confirm the presence of the barrow in this field, although their location of the barrow differed again to that of the HER.
What seems more likely, from the aerial photographic evidence, is that the barrow identified by Rainbird Clarke (NHER 10788) was in fact located slightly to the south, at TM 0138 8964. A mound has been identified in this location (NHER 57378), with a more degraded appearance than the three earthworks described above, but this too has clearly been recently disturbed (S2), and may have been at least partially excavated during World War Two, hence the pit features within the mound have been recorded as part of this record.
E. Bales (NMP), 02 July 2012.